Several high-profile arrivals gave Arsenal somewhat of a new look this season, but one thing remains the same: the Gunners can’t stop scoring from set-pieces.
Four goals in a 13-minute blitz at the Emirates saw Mikel Arteta’s side sweep past Atletico Madrid and continue their perfect start to this year’s Champions League.
After a run to the semi-final last year, Arsenal were already considered one of the favourites for this year’s edition. Their dominant start domestically and in Europe will have done nothing to quell those suspicions.
And if there was some surprise from onlookers as to the nature of this result against one of Europe’s best sides, there was surely no shock as to how Arsenal bookended their scoring against Diego Simeone’s side.
Another inch-perfect free-kick delivery from Declan Rice was headed home by Gabriel Magalhaes to open the scoring before Viktor Gyokeres bundled home Gabriel’s header from a corner to register his second on the night.
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Arsenal’s mastery and threat from set-pieces is more than an open secret at this point, but few defences have been able to shut them down over the past few campaigns, save for a dry spell in the middle of last season.
‘I’m a Liverpool supporter, I’m watching Arsenal and every time they get a corner, my head is in my hands,’ Jamie Carragher admitted earlier in the week.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this before in football. I think the whole football world feels every time they get a corner, they’re going to score a goal.’
Carragher’s fears are well-founded. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Arteta’s side have scored a mammoth 43 league goals from set-pieces, ten more than the next-best side in that period.
Leading that threat from dead-ball situations has been the aforementioned Gabriel, who appears to attack a whipped cross from Rice or Bukayo Saka like his entire bloodline depends on it.
The Brazilian international now has 22 goals since joining Arsenal in 2020, more than any other centre-back in Europe’s top five leagues during that period.
As former Arsenal centre-back Martin Keown noted on TNT Sports: ‘You know what he’s going to do, but you just can’t stop him.’
Such a threat has not materialised out of thin air. Nicolas Jover, however much his touchline antics may rile up Gary Neville, has been pivotal in Arsenal’s set-piece improvements and more than justified Arsenal’s decision to lure him away from rivals Manchester City in 2021.
In the season prior to the German’s arrival, Arsenal scored just six goals from set-pieces – the joint-third worst record in the league.
Yet in the two most recent seasons, they scored a combined 42 set-piece goals, topping the league in that metric on both occasions.
‘I get excited by getting assists now’
While Saka’s quality of delivery has long been known, it is his teammate, Rice, who has unexpectedly become one of the world’s most dangerous from a dead-ball situation over the last 20 months.
His latest assist on Tuesday was the Englishman’s tenth from dead balls in all competitions since signing for Arsenal – only Inter Milan’s Hakan Calhanoglu (11) has more across Europe’s big five leagues.
What makes that stat even more impressive, though, is that Rice did not take set-pieces regularly until a 5-0 win over Crystal Palace in January 2024, more than five months into his move to Arsenal.
‘We had actually been having conversations about it with Nico [Nicolas Jover], the set-piece coach, since the start of the season,’ he previously told ESPN.
‘Obviously because of my height [6-foot-1], he’s wanted me in the box. I just feel like he wanted a switch-up. If I hadn’t got the assist [against Palace], I don’t think anyone would have been talking about it.
‘Obviously I’ve been putting in good deliveries near middle, back post in games. I get excited by getting assists now. It is a big thing for me.’
Arteta unmoved by critics in quest for trophies
The additions of Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke over the summer provided the Gunners with a squad rich with attacking options.
And while others may have been tempted to lean more on those attacking strengths, Arteta clearly still sees his side’s defensive solidity and danger from set plays as the bedrock to any long-awaited trophy.
Such an approach has opened the Spaniard up to criticism, but he remains undeterred, noting after their most recent win: ‘ This is more about the result of the game.
‘The way we prepare the matches is always to try to help the opponents as much as possible, as frequently as possible, putting the players that we believe have the best capacity and qualities to do it from the beginning.’
Against Atletico, Arsenal more than demonstrated their ability and potency from open play as well, most notably when Myles Lewis-Skelly’s marauding run set up Gabriel Martinelli’s superb finish for their second of the evening.
And with Madueke, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard all on their way back from injury, Arsenal’s threat in forward areas will only grow stronger.
But regardless, for as long as opposition team struggles to cope with them, set-pieces will remain the fulcrum of Arsenal’s attacking threat. Arteta will not budge from the importance he places on them, and nor should he.
It has created a team custom-built for knockout football, and one that looks to have all the ingredients to be a serious force in this competition once again.
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